Opening Up
by Ajroe
Summary: Callie learns how to trust her family after telling them what happened with Liam. Set during/after The Fallout.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! Like many people I was heartbroken at the end of the last episode so I tried to fill in the gaps as well as I could. I'm planning for this to be multiple chapters. Thanks for reading!

I don't own Fosters.

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Callie took a deep breath after she finished telling Brandon what had become her biggest secret. She quickly looked down and noticed her hands shaking from fear and she tried to hide it. Having this conversation opened her up more than she was comfortable, she didn't want to show anymore weakness than she had to. She wished Brandon would say something.

"You know none of this is your fault right?" Brandon finally spoke, unsure of what to say. No one had ever confided this much in him.

"I guess." Callie responded then looked up to see Brandon silently urging her to say more. "I'm getting there, some days I know it wasn't my fault, and other days I'm not so sure. It's gotten easier with time." Callie now remembered why she hated opening up so much, the fear she felt was almost disabling.

"Well now you'll have more than time to help, you have me and whoever else you decide to tell. I take it you've never told anyone." Callie slowly shook her head no. This confession broke Brandon's heart more than any other Callie had made so far. He couldn't imagine living a life where he would have a good reason not to trust anyone. He suddenly gained a lot of respect for Callie, she was stronger than she seemed. "Well I think you probably have to tell Moms and they will probably need to report it but other than that I doubt you'll need to tell anyone if you don't want to. Do you want to tell Moms?" Brandon was trying to get his point across without being to upfront about it. He just really hoped she would answer yes to his question.

"It scares the crap out of me honestly." Callie started before she began to get a little choked up. As she tried to not begin to cry she tried to start speaking again. "It really scares me." She couldn't get any farther before she started to cry. She wished she could hold in the tears but they just kept slowly falling. "I'm sorry. This is just a lot."

"You don't need to apologize. It is a lot. I wish I could do more." Brandon was at a loss for words, he was unsure of what to say, he wanted to make her feel better but he didn't want to do anything that she wouldn't like or be uncomfortable with. He had a hard time resisting the urge to give her a hug and never let go. "I'm really sorry but you need to tell Moms what happened. They can help."

"They can only do so much; I could be taken away in a heartbeat." Callie was relieved that she had gained some control over her tears.

"Moms won't let you out of their sight for a while after this. It will be difficult for people to take you away with them right there. If it makes it easier just think about Sarah. By telling someone you will probably make her life a lot better than it probably is right now."

"Yeah you're right. Can we at least take a little break before we go home? Like a fast food break? I'm not sure how to handle all of this emotion at once." Callie tried to lighten the mood a little bit before everything would be changing. All of the emotion wore her out, and she knew there would be more. She was happy to see Brandon smile after her comment; he realized she was done with all of the emotion for now at least.

"That sounds great. I could really dig a milkshake right now. But then we go home." Brandon made sure Callie nodded before turning and beginning to walk towards his car. He tried not to focus on what would be happening soon and tried to switch his focus to helping Callie relax before she had to tell her story all over again.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, two chapters in one day, I think this is a first for me. Thank you for all of your follows, favorites, and reviews, I really appreciate them. I hope you like this chapter as much as you liked the last one.

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Callie took a deep breath before she opened the door to her current home, noticing her hands were shaking again, but this time Brandon noticed and put his hand over hers trying to be helpful. She wasn't really sure what she was about to say, but she just wanted to get it over with. She hesitantly opened the door and Brandon walked in behind her.

As the teens turned into the front room they saw their moms on the couch relaxing with glasses of wine. The small talk they were making was a blur to her; she was only focused on what she had to say. She entered the room and went to sit down and then her attention was switched to Brandon as he spoke, "I'll let you guys talk." He figured she would be more comfortable without him in the room.

"No, you can stay." Callie hoped having Brandon there would calm her. With the unspoken tension in the room mounting Lena and Steph sat up on the couch as Callie sat down on the chair across from the couch. The two mothers prepared to hear the worst as Brandon walked to stand behind Callie. Brandon was relieved when he saw Callie breathe out a breath she had apparently been holding, he was happy he was helping some way.

"Um, I have something I need to tell you." Callie tried to begin what she had to say but was visibly struggling; "A little while ago I was living with another family, um, it was a pretty good situation. And they had, a boy, in the house with them, their son actually." Lena's heart sank seeing how hard this was for the girl that had become another daughter to her. "He was different than the other foster brothers I had in the past. He paid attention." Everyone's heart broke when Callie started crying, overwhelmed by emotion; "I really liked him, he made me feel special, he even told me I was special." Lena gripped her partner's hand as she prepared for the worst as Brandon couldn't help but let a few tears fall as Callie got to the hard part. "One night he had convinced his parents to take Jude out with them," Steph tried to make eye contact with her son, for some inkling of what Callie was about to say, but he kept his eyes glued to the floor. Callie took another deep breath before she continued "I had gone to bed but hadn't gone to sleep yet, he came in and asked me if I wanted to, you know, have sex with him. I said no and that I wasn't ready." Callie's tears started to fall faster now. Brandon was unsure whether or not he should do something, so he put his hand on her shoulder. "Then he forced me to have sex with him."

With everyone else upstairs it seemed like the only sound in the entire house was Callie's tears. Lena and Steph thought they had prepared themselves for the worst, but they had not prepared for this. Lena squeezed her partner's hand before getting up to go sit by Callie. Lena knew to be careful; she didn't want Callie to get frightened.

"What can I do honey?" She spoke in a soft voice. Callie could sense her genuine desire to help.

"Let Jude and I stay." Callie let out a broken sob, then got down on the floor and let herself be held by the older women. She was tired of holding it all in as scary as it was to let someone else in.

"Of course sweetie, of course you and Jude will be staying right here. You did the right thing by telling us. It's good that you told us." Lena quietly reassured her as she began to rock back and forth with Callie sobbing in her arms.

Steph also started tearing up at the sudden display of emotion. She quickly looked up to see her son begin to cry, prompting her to stand up and hug him as tight as she could manage. She knew although he couldn't understand what Callie had gone through he hurt for her. She separated from the hug and put her hands on his shoulders protectively "We will talk later. Ok?" Brandon nodded, understanding that the attention needed to be on Callie.

"I'm going to throw up." Callie finally managed to speak through the tears. Steph instantly went into action. Grabbing the closest bowl she could find then shoving it towards Lena who held it right below Callie's mouth and managed to pull her hair back enough before Callie began to throw up.

Steph put a hand on Brandon's shoulder silently telling him that he could leave, that Callie would be ok. After she saw Brandon go upstairs she went over to where Lena and Callie were on the ground. She took Callie's hair and began to join Lena in trying to comfort Callie the best they could.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello! Again I really appreciate all of your reviews, favorites, and follows. Thank you all for reading.

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Steph was relieved when she opened the door to her room to see Callie curled up asleep with Lena on the other side of the bed stroking Callie's hair, keeping her close. "How's she doing?" Steph went to sit by her partner.

"It took a lot of convincing to get her to go to sleep but I think physically she was doing much better before she fell asleep." Lena responded barely taking her eyes off of Callie

"Well that's a start." Steph paused wanted to tread lightly; "What should we do about the other kids? They're all smart they'll figure something's up."

"We definitely shouldn't tell them specifics, we can't betray Callie's trust like that so soon after she gave it to us." Lena gained that firm compassion in her voice that Steph loved about her. "I'm just wondering how much Jude knows. Those two are close."

"Oh gosh I didn't even think about that." Steph was tearing up but she couldn't put her finger on why; "Should we talk to him separate from Mariana and Jesus and figure out what he knows first?"

"That would probably be best. Tomorrow is Saturday should we do it then?" Lena questioned. Steph nodded in response. "I'm exhausted." Lena yawned but recovered quickly, suddenly remembering Brandon's role in this; "What should say to Brandon?"

"I was going to talk to him after I talked to you. I figured you should stay with Callie for tonight at least. She probably doesn't want to wake up alone." Steph informed her partner about her plan.

"You sure you don't want me in on it?" Lena asked even though she just wanted to curl up next to Callie and fall asleep.

"I think this will be better one on one, also you look a bit too tired for an emotional conversation at the moment." She smiled as she stood up ready to go talk to her son.

"Good luck." She heard Lena say as she left the room.

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When Steph turned into Brandon's room she smiled as she heard him playing the piano. It was something she had never heard before, she didn't see any music. She admired his ability to just make beautiful music off the top of his head. She stood and listened for a few minutes. This song had a somber quality; it was different than the others he wrote. After a minute he stopped playing.

"That was nice." His mom's words scared Brandon but in the back of his head he was expecting them at some point.

"Thanks, I should have written it down but that's ok." Brandon turned around to see his mom sitting down. He knew they were going to have the talk she mentioned earlier.

"I just wanted to check in; you were understandably pretty upset earlier." He shrugged in response. His mom gave him one of her looks; she hated it when he shrugged when they were having a serious conversation.

"What do you want me to say? I hate to see anyone hurting; especially the girl who has become my sister," Brandon started with an increasing quiet intensity in his voice, "The fact that we all judged her when she had a great reason to be aloof bothers the crap out of me." By now angry tears were seeping from Brandon's eyes; "and the fact that the system might take her away because she was raped I can't even grasp. The system has already failed her to many times."

Steph was a bit surprised her son opened up so fast but she knew all of that, and probably more, was in there somewhere. "Come here B." She motioned him over to his bed where she was sitting. "You know that Lena and I will not let Callie or Jude leave this house, right?"

"There is only so much you can do though." Brandon was exhausted from all of the emotion in one day.

"I think you are underestimating the mama bear abilities that are in this house. I promise Callie and Jude will be here where they are safe." Steph and Brandon both smiled briefly at her joke.

"Why do people hurt other people?" Brandon questioned with more tears falling.

"I don't know. There are some bad people out there. Some of them like to hurt other people; don't ask me why because I have no idea. But the fact that you and I and everyone in the house don't get it is good. It means we aren't the bad people, we are the good people that help other people instead of hurt them." Steph's heart broke at her son's question as she tried to answer an unanswerable question.

"How's Callie doing?" Brandon was trying to process everything that was going on.

"Well right now she is asleep with Lena. Apparently it took some convincing but she did fall asleep. I'm thinking the next few days will be the hardest. She's going to need each and every one of us. Understood?" Steph made sure she had eye contact with her son making sure he really heard her.

"Yes mam." Brandon yawned signaling the end of the conversation.

"Ok. Now try to get some sleep. We can talk more later if you want to." Steph stood up and slowly exited the room in case Brandon wanted to say anything more, but he didn't.

When Steph reached her room she smiled. She saw Lena and Callie curled up in bed. She quickly changed into her pajamas and happily joined the two peaceful looking women.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello! Sorry for the slight delay but I all of the sudden realized there is less than a month left of summer and I still have work left... opps...

Hope everyone likes the chapter! Your favs, follows, and reviews keep me writing!

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Callie didn't want to get up. She was a teenager and it was Saturday so that wasn't totally unusual, but today was different. She wasn't sure what Lena and Steph had planned for the day, which scared her because she didn't want to be thrown into anything. She was interrupted from her thoughts when Lena came into the bedroom from the bathroom.

"Hey sweetie. How'd you sleep?" Lena sat next when Callie was.

"Ok."

"Just ok?" Lena wanted to prod a little bit but not make Callie uncomfortable.

"Ok for the circumstances I guess. No nightmares or anything but I didn't really fall asleep." Lena was happy Callie willingly opened up even though it was just about sleep.

"Well that's good." Callie noticed Lena visibly tense up in between talking, "Steph and I were talking last night and we wanted to get a more complete picture of what is going on. How much did you tell Jude about what happened?"

"Well he knows Liam, my old foster brother, hurt me really badly. But I didn't tell him how." Callie finished as Steph came out of the bathroom and offered Callie a smile before she sat down to join the conversation.

"Ok. We also wanted to talk to the other kids, because this could change things for them too. We wanted to hear your thoughts on what you wanted us to say and things like that." Lena treaded lightly she didn't want Callie to become too upset.

Callie took a thoughtful pause before she began to speak. "I feel like Mariana should know the whole story just because I share a room with her and we've gotten a lot closer." Both Moms smiled, they were happy Callie trusted her foster sister. "But I don't want Jesus or Jude to know. I want to tell Mariana, or at least be there."

"How about the three of us go talk to Mariana after breakfast so everyone has a chance to wake up a little." Steph suggested getting affirmative nods from everyone else in the room. "I think all of the kids are down at breakfast. You should join them." Callie nodded and got up to join her foster siblings.

Once Callie left Lena asked the question that had been in the back of her mind since she had woken up; "How'd the conversation with Brandon go last night?" Even though Brandon wasn't her biological son she cared for him like he was.

"He was able to get a lot out. It was kind of quick and not much was actually discussed so I'll be going in for follow up. But he seemed to feel better afterwards so it was good overall." Steph tried to explain her conversation the best she could.

"If you want assistance just let me know. We should probably make our presence known at the breakfast table." Lena stood up as Steph joined her.

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Mariana picked up that something was wrong when her mom asked her to come upstairs after breakfast. Her suspicion rose when she turned into her room and saw her other Mom and Callie sitting on Callie's bed. "What's wrong?" She finally got up the nerve to ask.

"Why don't we sit down first?" Lena took a breath deep enough that Callie saw it from across the room.

Steph spoke up after a slight awkward silence; "So Callie has recently made us aware of something that we all thought you should know." Steph paused slightly unsure of what to do; "Do you want to talk Callie?" She asked and saw the older teen's breath become slightly uneven, but Callie spoke before Steph could speak up again.

"Sure. You know I've been in a lot of foster homes. Some were better than others. About a year ago Jude and I were in this home and it was great- really great." Callie noticed her moms share a somber smile as she talked about the good stuff. She also noticed Mariana's slight confusion. "The parents had a son who was older than me at the time. I really liked him." Steph started to rub Callie's back soothingly as she got to the hard part. "He seemed to really like me. One night he had convinced Jude to go out to the movies." Callie noticed the fear seep into Mariana's eyes as she hoped she was wrong about what Callie was about to say. Mariana leaned into Lena who instantly gave silent comfort to her daughter. "I was already in bed but I hadn't fallen asleep yet and he came in. He asked me to have sex with him." The tears Callie had been holding back started to slowly stream out. "I said no; but he didn't care. He forced me."

Mariana's hand slowly came to cover her mouth; "Oh my god. How are you? I mean I know that's a really dumb question but… How are you?" For the first time in Callie's experience Mariana was at a loss for words.

"I've been doing a lot better with time. It's hard though." Callie tried to answer honestly.

"That's how it is with most people." Lena felt like she should speak up.

"Ok." Mariana was still in shock. She wasn't sure what to think, the girl that had become her sister and she had been hurt worse than Mariana could imagine. "What can I do to help?" Callie noticed how Lena's caring had rubbed off on her daughter.

"Just treat me normal. I just wanted you to know because we are so close rooming wise and I feel like we are getting closer, and another person knowing just makes me feel better." Callie smiled a little bit.

"Sounds good, just let me know if you need anything else." Mariana returned the smile.

"Will do." The girls were drawn from their conversation when Steph got up after noticing the time and Lena followed.

"Callie. We need to go call Bill. We will talk to him and then give you an update." Steph gave Callie's back a comforting rub when she saw the teen's breath become really uneven. "Do you want me to get Brandon?"

"Tell him I'll meet him outside?" Once Callie got an affirmative nod from Steph she grabbed her guitar and bolted outside.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello! I hope everyone enjoys the chapter. This is more of a transition chapter, so better writing and more drama is coming. :)

Thanks for your support!

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When his Mom told him what was going on Brandon quickly made his way outside. He saw Callie on the edge of the deck softly strumming on the guitar. As he slowly made his way closer to her he didn't recognize the song but he noticed that it seemed to have a calming effect on her. "That's really pretty." He spoke quietly so he wouldn't scare her.

"Thanks." Callie put the guitar down as Brandon sat down next to her. "Moms are calling Bill." She said simply, Brandon was surprised at the lack of emotion she seemed to show.

"I'm sure they will fight as hard as they can to keep you and Jude here." Brandon reassured Callie's unspoken thought.

"But there is only so hard they can fight." Callie started to show some emotion; "I really like it here."

"We all really like having you here, no one will let you go to a group home." Brandon tried to convince her she was loved but it was hard for Callie to accept.

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"Steph I hear you but this decision needs to be in Callie's best interest." Bill's words over speaker phone made both Lena and Steph cringe.

"So you are saying a group home is in Callie's best interest? Not here with a family and with her brother? If that girl doesn't have her brother nothing will be in her best interest." Lena was becoming very annoyed with the social worker.

"I understand that Lena and I know Callie and Jude are very close. I would much rather have her stay with you but there is only so much I can do." Lena and Steph looked at each other, neither sure of what to say.

"Well what's the plan from here?" Steph was always the logical thinker between her and her partner.

"Well I'll need to come over to talk to Callie to evaluate her and then we go from there. I can't come today or tomorrow. Does Wednesday work?"

Lena breathed out; "Yes it does. What time?"

The sounds of pages flipping filled the phone "5 o'clock ok?"

"Yes sir." Steph responded. "Well we should probably go talk to Callie. See you Wednesday." Steph grabbed the phone and hung up. "Let's go talk to our kid."

"Let's" Lena responded as they got up.

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Brandon was the first to see his Moms approaching. He and Callie had been just relaxing outside and strumming random things on the guitar. Callie quickly realized them and her calm appearance was gone. "How'd it go?"

"It went." Lena gave Callie the short answer before both she and Steph sat down; "We talked to Bill and you will be staying here for now. But on Wednesday he needs to come evaluate you and then he'll make a decision." Lena finished trying to gauge Callie's reaction.

"But he said he thinks it probably best for you to stay here so that's good." Steph added in seeing Callie become upset.

"So he has to evaluate me. What do I say?" Callie was trying to get all of the facts before she freaked out.

"Well you answer his questions honestly sweetie." Lena put an arm around Callie as she answered.

"But no matter what he decides Jude stays here?" Callie wanted to stay with the Fosters but if she couldn't she at least wanted Jude to be able to.

"Yes mam." Steph spoke again. "Callie you realize that you are just as important as he is right?" Callie shrugged in response.

"Everyone in this house believes that Callie. I'm sure Jude does too." Brandon spoke up, heartbroken at her shrug.

"I've just been working to keep him safe almost my whole life, I've always come second. A lot of our Foster parents didn't really care about us so I was always the only one working to keep him safe and happy." As Callie began to open up piece by piece everyone was proud of her.

"But now you have us," Lena spoke again, "and Mariana and Jesus who are all looking out for both you and Jude. You can relax a bit." Lena knew that although Callie was doing a great job opening up she hadn't relaxed in the house yet.

"Why is it so hard to relax?" Callie started to cry. Brandon had his arm around her in an instant. Lena and Steph both had hands on Callie's knees there to comfort her.

"You've been through so much sweetie. It is understandable that you have a hard time relaxing. The people who you should've been able to trust have betrayed that trust." Lena tried to comfort the inconsolable teen.

"I might not even get to stay here. I might not even get to stay here because I was raped that's not fair. I can't relax because nothing is fair." Callie leaned into Brandon to try to get some form of comfort.

"None of this should have happened and you are so tough and you're handling everything so well." Brandon quickly tried to reassure her. "I'm impressed." He added for good measure.

Callie let a little laugh go; "Thanks." She told him with a smile. "Can we be done being serious for a while? I'm tired."

Steph smiled with her teens; "Of course we can be done being serious. We should go do something fun. What should we do?" She asked Lena who was beginning to relax now that Callie seemed to.

"We could go out to dinner, Dave and Busters? We haven't been there for a while." Lena suggested.

Brandon couldn't hold back his smile; "Please." He said as if he was five years old.


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